The house where Adolf Hitler was born in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn, near the German border, officially reopened Wednesday as a police station, the culmination of a years-long effort by Austrian authorities to keep the building from becoming a draw for neo-Nazi visitors.
The large terraced house had long been privately owned and, for years, served as home to a charity supporting people with disabilities. After extensive public debate over what to do with the property, the Austrian government forced its purchase in 2017 and announced two years later that it would be converted into a police station.
Even before the renovation, little about the building’s exterior hinted at its history. A single stone set into the pavement outside, taken from the site of the former Mauthausen concentration camp, bears the inscription “Never again fascism” without any direct reference to Hitler, and it remains there today. Now the only addition to the building’s white facade is a simple sign reading “Police.”
Stephan Mlczoch, who heads the history department within Austria’s interior ministry, told journalists during a tour of the building that the goal from the outset was to sever any visible connection to Hitler and dismantle the aura that had built up around the site.
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That aura traces back to the Nazi regime itself, which turned the property into a museum devoted to Hitler during its rule, despite the fact that Hitler’s family lived there only briefly in 1889 before moving elsewhere, according to Mlczoch.
Tourists still occasionally pause outside to snap photos, though officials say it’s rarely clear what draws them or what they think of Hitler. Local authorities note that incidents involving visitors have become rare, though they declined to go into detail. Displaying the Hitler salute or other Nazi symbols remains illegal in Austria.
